A Little Bit Quieter, Yet Equally True
by soymilklatte
Summary: Donna Noble-Temple is happy. Really perfectly happy.


A Little Bit Quieter, Yet Equally True

Donna Noble-Temple is happy. Really perfectly happy. Why wouldn't she be? She is married to a man who is as utterly in love with her as she is with him, they have enough money that they never have to worry about finances, everyone she loves is safe and healthy, she and Shaun spend as much time as they can traveling around the world, and she does as much as humanly possible for charities and championing of the underdogs. With a life like hers one would have to be staggeringly ungrateful to not be happy. So, of course she is, she wouldn't change a thing.

She gets back to her house after her morning run. She doesn't know where her obsession with running originates from as she could not care less about healthy eating or any other form of physical fitness but running is so terribly important she just can't quite put her finger on why.

What Donna truly wants to do is lie down and sleep for a few hours. She is beyond exhausted. She is always exhausted anymore. She doesn't sleep well and she swears she has tried every remedy she's come across. Her entire life she never had any sleep issues, once she fell asleep she would stay that way until her morning alarm, and then hit the snooze button for ten more minutes but over the last few years something has changed.

She still falls asleep easily but her dreams are haunted by strange visions she has no hope of understanding: creatures with a brain held in their hands and tentacles where their mouth should be, a tall, skinny man in a suit who makes her feel affection and exasperation with a slight undercurrent of betrayal, a big blue box that reminds her of home, a giant talking spider that fills her with heartbreak and humiliation, and then, of course, there's always the giant wasp. After these dreams she is, without fail, frightened and exhilarated and left with a sense of longing so intense that it leaves her breathless. So even though she is still able to fall asleep easily she doesn't stay asleep long and once awakened from her dreams she knows sleeping is definitely finished for the night.

Her dreams aren't the only odd thing in her life anymore. There was that time a few months ago when she and Shaun were snuggled up under a blanket on the sofa on a particularly rainy and chilly afternoon, they were watching some historical documentary that Shaun had wanted to see but one of the stock footage scenes showed a police box and she ended up crying, inconsolably, for two hours.

She needs to pack. A few weeks ago Shaun had suggested heading off to Egypt for yet another holiday and while Donna has been there before she remembers that she didn't really enjoy it; for some reason that trip had seemed like such a tedious hassle but Shaun has never been and so, in a few hours, they'll be on their way.

Once everything is packed and organized to her rather exacting standards, she heads over to see her mum and gramps, wanting to say goodbye before she and Shaun leave. Her relationship with her mum has her as confused as every other thing in her life that doesn't quite fit as it has in the past. Once it was full of disappointment, bitterness, and contention but now it's calmed with a quiet support and a gentleness of affection and love that was never really present before. Donna doesn't know if she herself has changed or if Sylvia has but she is grateful for it all the same.

Her mum has just returned from the shops when she arrives and together they bring in the bags. Sylvia makes tea as Donna puts the groceries away. "Have you finished packing for Egypt?"

That's another thing, Sylvia seems almost relieved by Donna's wanderlust and it gets added to the list of inexplicable things in her life. "Got everything in order and settled this morning after my run."

"Are you all right?" Sylvia stops, trying to be careful with her words. "It's just you look so tired all the time."

"I'm still having the dreams and once they wake me up I'm always too restless to go back to sleep. Last night's series were particularly vivid and I couldn't even stay in bed. I was worried my nervous energy would wake Shaun. I made some tea and sat out on the veranda looking at the stars."

Donna had had no intentions of ever telling her mum about the dreams but she was at the house one day having tea with her gramps and he had gotten her to open up about them and her mum had over-heard. Surprisingly, instead of impatience and sarcasm Sylvia had made a fresh pot of tea and just offered silent support whilst Donna talked. That was the turning point in their relationship and they've been slowly moving forward ever since.

Still, there are times when her mum and gramps think she isn't paying attention and she'll catch them looking at her as though she is the most heartbreaking story they've ever been told. Donna isn't stupid, she knows there are things that are being kept from her and, yeah, she's sussed out that her dreams may be a clue (although she has no idea how that could be) and that her mum and gramps know more than they're telling but, honestly, she isn't certain that she wants to know.

She's willing to admit to herself that's she is a little afraid to learn all the answers since whenever she thinks about the dreams too hard she gets a migraine the likes of which she has never experienced at any other point in her life with a burning sensation so severe that it defies any previous understanding of pain she had ever experienced. So, yes, she knows something isn't right but she isn't positive that the pain is worth discovering the answers. There's also the instinctive, bone deep feeling that she would not survive the discovery and that is just too high a price to pay. For now she'll just have to file it under unanswerable questions in the life of Donna Noble-Temple.

"Looking at the stars, are you? Soon all you'll need is a telescope and you'll be turning into your gramps."

"You say that but we both know that turning into Wilfred Mott is one of the best things that could happen to someone."

"Fair enough and perhaps Egypt will be good for you then. A change of pace and scenery, might be just what you need."

"Maybe. I'm excited to be traveling again and with Shaun it's bound to be interesting and hopefully I'll be able to get some sleep on the flight."

After finishing her tea, Donna makes another cup in a travel mug and heads out back to see her gramps. He's up on the hill getting ready to watch the sky tonight with his beloved telescope. "There you are. Hello, my girl."

"Anything special happening up there tonight, gramps?"

"It's always special!"

"You know what I mean," she says with a smile.

"Well, I'm always keeping a lookout because you never want to miss anything. Some things have a tendency to be once in a lifetime." What Wilf will never tell her of course is that what he is always on the lookout for is a glimpse of the TARDIS. Ever since the wedding he hoped but didn't really expect to see the Doctor again.

Wilf drank his tea whilst making certain that the magnification on his telescope was perfect. Donna sat quietly watching him. "Gramps, are you looking at the sky or are you still looking for aliens?"

"Both, I suppose. Why do you ask? I thought you didn't care about any of that stuff?"

"I don't really but when my dreams get as intense as they are right now, I wonder. That's all."

"Well, they're just dreams. I wouldn't worry about them too much," Wilf says, trying to sound as though there is nothing important about Donna's words,as though her life doesn't depend on her not remembering. "Anyway, we should head inside. Say goodbye to your mum and make sure you're on time to catch your flight."

The three sit and chat until Donna gets a message from Shaun saying that he is on his way home. She hugs her family goodbye and heads back to her house. She gets there before he does and goes inside to gather their luggage. Shaun arrives a few minutes later and calls for a taxi after moving all of the bags next to the front door.

An hour later they are at Heathrow, standing in a queue to check in for their flight. Shaun takes her hand and she startles for a moment as, for what is undoubtedly that same mysterious reason behind everything else, she had expected him to be the tall, skinny man in the suit from her dreams. She shakes off the odd sensation and smiles when he places a soft kiss on her forehead.

Donna knows, and is slowly, finally, coming to accept, that she will never make sense of the little unsolvable mysteries that surround her and she doesn't want to dwell on them, she doesn't want to allow them to take over and control her life. She is going to focus on the things she can understand, the things she knows to be real and true. She is Donna Noble-Temple. She is in love with and is loved by Shaun Temple. And she is happy.


End file.
